How does the court divide our assets including investment and retirement accounts?
All assets accumulated by the parties during the course of the marriage including all bank accounts; investment accounts such as mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc; retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s, and; pensions are considered part of the marital estate and as such are marital property. It makes no difference to the court which party accumulated the asset or whether the asset is in the name of one party or the other or both. As long as the asset was accumulated by the parties during the marriage the court will consider the property as marital property and as part of the marital estate. As discussed previously when it comes to decisions as to how to divide marital property between the parties Massachusetts is what is called an equitable division state. This means that the judge deciding your case has wide discretion in determining what he or she thinks is fair and reasonable settlement after taking into consideration all eighteen factors listed in Massachusetts General Laws,
